Clary Sage Crown Bouquet Mixed

The colour on a clary sage is not flower at all. Those vivid pink, indigo and white tops are coloured leaves, bracts sitting above the tiny true flowers, which are hidden inside and barely worth looking at.

That botanical quirk is why it is so useful. Leaf pigment does not behave like petal pigment. It does not bleach in sun, it is not knocked about by rain, and it holds for a fortnight or more in a vase and for years dried. A stem cut in July still has its colour at Christmas. Very little else in the hardy annual range gives you that.

Two things to be clear about. This is Salvia viridis, the annual, not the biennial herbal clary Salvia sclarea, which is a different plant with a different smell and no colour in its first year. And being a mix, you get all three colours whether you want them or not; if you are planting a single-colour scheme, wait until the seedlings show their bract colour and sort them then. At 60 to 75cm the stems are strong and upright, and it flowers from June to October off one sowing. Bees work the hidden flowers hard.